Jayne Black's work in fighting air pollution was inspired by the health issues of her two children
NEED TO KNOW
- Jayne Black, 64, works as a Wisconsin-based field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, whose mission is to fight air pollution
- Her daughter was diagnosed multiple sclerosis and her son has asthma
- Black recently got involved in a campaign to stop the development of an AI data center project that would have been 12 miles from her home
When Wisconsin mother Jayne Black talks about her work as a clean-air activist, she chokes up a little. The environment is an issue that is very personal: her daughter Erin, 41, has multiple sclerosis and her son Sam, 37, has asthma.
“All I can see is my daughter's face and my son's face,” Black, 64, of De Pere, tells PEOPLE, “because I know that their lives are so impacted by this, and people don't understand that. Everything I do is for them, and I'm thankful it benefits a lot of people.”
Black, who also has two other children, is a field organizer with the Wisconsin chapter of Moms Clean Air Force, a national non-profit organization of 1.6 million mothers and fathers whose common cause is fighting air pollution.
“We want clean air for our kids,” Black says. “So we very much are promoting clean energy for everyone. So anything that doesn't fit with that picture like fossil fuels, that is something that we are going to try to change.”
The seeds of her activism were planted when Sam was diagnosed with asthma at age 5, Black recalls. “The doctor said it's environmental,” she recalls of her son’s condition, “and I was thinking, ‘Allergens?’ He was saying you can give him Benadryl, whatever. I never connected those dots to air pollutants.”
Credit: Courtesy of Jayne Black
But it was Erin’s condition during the COVID pandemic that galvanized Black.
“Her doctors told her, ‘You need to take this really seriously. You need to mask,’ ” Black says of her daughter, who was first diagnosed with MS in 2015. “She started researching about air quality, which is really about rooms being ventilated properly. I was super concerned about her. I was concerned for myself, but it just tripled. So during that time, I was like, ‘I have got to get involved. I have got to do something.’ "
A former pre-K teacher, Black is a longtime participant in beauty pageants—she was the 2025 winner of Mrs. Elemental USA, whose mission is to advocate environmental sustainability and awareness. “Everything that I do with Mom's Clean Air Force, I'm able to promote through that as well,” she says. “So it's been great.”
Black’s work led her to the issue of data centers, which have drawn controversy over the amount of energy they use and their environmental impact. She was one of the opponents of a proposed plan by Texas developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure to build a data center in the village of Greenleaf.
“I was like, ‘I cannot believe this because this is 12 miles from my home,’ ” says Black, who first heard about the proposal on the news in early January. She adds, “It's gut-wrenching, and knowing too that these data centers primarily are using fossil fuels. It's really disappointing and it's scary.”
In response, Black launched a Facebook group as a forum to educate and take action on the issue. In about a week, she says, the group gained 3,000 members from all over Wisconsin.
“They're like, ‘This is farmland. I don't want it in my backyard. I love where I live. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. I don't want this,’ ” she says of responses from the group. “And then when you start talking to them about what this really would mean for their community and their health, they're even more concerned. So that was the organizing part.”
Several days later, Cloverleaf abandoned its plans for the project, citing lack of support from local leaders. “We had such strong opposition,” Black says. “[Cloverleaf] said, ‘Okay, we'll just go elsewhere.’ And that's what they do, unfortunately.”
Cloverleaf’s decision surprised Black, as she and the opposition were prepared to go all the way in their fight. "I work with organizers all across the country, and so we really want Greenleaf to be inspirational to the fact that community pushback works, like how important your voice is. I was just one person who started a Facebook page. These people in Greenleaf did not even know me, and we just all worked together.”
She says that her children Erin and Sam know that their mother’s work has not only affected them, but also the greater public — and that is what drives her.
Credit: Jayne Black
“For a long time, my daughter's illness was very personal and private,” Black says. “Even asthma with my son — he's helped me, he supports me. So I know how thankful they are. They give me strength to do what I do. I rarely get tired out."
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Through her work, Black says she wants to show people how powerful a mother’s voice is and how powerful other people’s stories are.
“When you speak about wanting changes for cleaner air, and you have a child who's impacted, it hits differently,” she explains. “That's really what we do at Moms, is just use our stories."
"I understand not all of us can do this work, but everybody can do one little thing, whether it's signing a petition, going to a meeting, voting, whatever it is," she continues. "Together that community voice at all levels is so powerful. To me, that's what community is all about. And community means everyone. That's what wins these battles.”
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